The Televisual Commercials 30
Jon Creamer introduces Televisual's exclusive annual report, the Commercials 30, and finds that while budgets are down and production companies are under threat from agency in-house units, commercials producers are finding new horizons beyond ads too.

Commercials 30: Best in Show
Commercials producers also get to vote for their favourite directors, stand out ads and top rated agencies along with their favourite post houses, editors and vfx ops. We reveal the results

Commercials 30: The Top 30
Televisual reveals the Commercials 30 itself, the 30 top rated commercials production companies in the UK

Music in Motion
So what’s next for the music behind the commercials? Will it be another year in the ascendant for London Grime perhaps? Portugese house? Afro beats or the Angolan kuduro sound?

Televisual Factual Festival report
Last month saw Televisual's annual Factual Festival return to Bafta. How to stand out in a world of ever increasing viewer choice was the big theme this time. Tim Dams reports

Alison Kirkham in interview
At the Televisual Factual Festival, the BBC's controller of factual Alison Kirkham outlined the shows the corporation is looking for in the year ahead

Reports& surveys

1 . Imagination imagination.com
Ceo and global creative director Douglas Broadley
Tel 020 7323 3300
Clients Range Rover – A Different Perspective for Land Rover; Carbon Capture Storage Quest for Shell; Ford Transit Family for Ford.
Imagination says it’s “had some amazing briefs to work on over the past year” including a cgi film projected on to the new Range Rover and “a 360 film in Morocco with Yellowbird for an installation in China.” However it says 2012’s been “another challenging year for production, as lead times become ever shorter” and so the focus has turned to “quickly generating fresh ideas that can be delivered within a restricted production period, without compromising on ambition or quality. We work hard to realise strong creative regardless of the constraints.”

2. Jack Morton jackmorton.com
President EMEA Julian Pullan Tel 020 8735 2000
Clients BP technology experience for BP; On the Line for Ericsson; The CES Keynote Film for Ericsson.
An “outstanding year” says Jack Morton, with the Olympics providing “a real boost to the corporate sector” with clients keen to do “something genuinely creative and use moving image work as the key element of their experiences. It meant a return to more complex projects that needed detailed creative direction over a period of months.” The company says it was “nice to see clients being so ambitious again and have their focus on the quality and efficacy of the project.” The hope now is that “they continue to push on from here rather than retrench.”

3. The Edge Picture Company edgepicture.com
Md Phil Blundell Tel 020 7836 6262
Clients Engage for Success for Employee Engagement Taskforce; Fit for Life for Sport Wales; Thinking about the Future for Siemens.
The Edge says that 2012 was “very tough” due particularly to large companies “abusing payment terms” putting “huge pressures on cash flow.” The focus, it says, is to protect staff “many of whom started and have grown their careers here. The last year has seen our people absolutely work their socks off” but that the company’s now fit and ready to “ride the wave of a resurgent economy.” though “we don’t expect 2013 to be any more buoyant than 2012 and have made our various forecasts with this in mind.”

4. Twofour twofour.co.uk
Ceo Charles Wace Tel 01752 727400
Clients Event management, video production and digital for VW; Video production and event management for Oxfam; Video production for BBC Worldwide.
Twofour says the last year “has been very competitive with a strong focus on cost” but it is still “cautiously optimistic. We believe the sector will grow in 2013 with a greater emphasis on integrated and unified marketing and communications plans across all digital platforms.”

5. Pretzel Films pretzelfilms.com
Md PJ Bickford
Tel 020 7580 9595
Clients The Panda Made Me Do IT for WWF; Nathan’s Story for Network Rail; HERProject for Primark.
Pretzel reckons the recession has in some ways had a positive effect on creativity because “the need for clients to spend their money wisely has meant a much more open communication between producer and client. Clients have become more daring in their creativity. This is partly due to the competiton of the markets they are in and their need to fight for their space with the best, most creative films.”

6. New Moon new-moon.co.uk
Exec creative director Caroline Rowland
Tel 020 7479 7010
Clients FIRST – The Official Film of the London 2012 Olympic Games for IOC; Dubai Sponsors Channel 4 Racing for Falcon; Sports for Everyone for Youth Sports Trust.
Producing its first feature length documentary (First, about young athletes’ experiences at the London Olympics) was of course a highlight but “traditional corporate production has been challenging,” it says. due to “an apparent decline in value, although volumes appear to have stayed roughly the same.” It says that in response to this “we have been shifting our business away from traditional corporate production work and into the areas of country branding and sports – both fairly buoyant sectors which made the business climate during 2012 quite favourable.”

7. Jacaranda jacaranda.co.uk
Md Katy Eyre Tel 020 8741 9088
Clients London 2012 – Fuelling the Future for BP; Citizenship Awards 2012 for Barclays; Policing the Olympics for The MET Police.
Jacaranda lists its highlights of the last year simply as “The Olympics!” which meant “working with the Met Police to train officers new to London and working with BP to communicate their sponsorship of the Olympics” So 2012 was “good. But there was definitely an Olympics bounce to the bottom line.” And 2013? “Less good, as the Olympic honeymoon is over, and the economy continues to ‘flatline.’” A big concern ahead for everyone will be “the unstable economic environment, with large PLCs sitting on cash, unwilling to invest in good communications due to a lack of confidence in their own company’s future.”

8. = Radley Yeldar ry.com
Md Carl Radley
Tel 020 7033 0700
Clients Global Acquisition Stories for Pearson; Sustainability Heroes for Unilever; We Care for Beiersdorf.
2012 was a mixed picture, says Radley Yeldar. It was “very good in some respects with lots of opportunities – particularly on bigger, integrated projects.” The downside has been many clients having “limited visibility of projects meaning lots of last minute projects and requests and also lots of last minute cancellations and postponements.” The post COI landscape has also been tough “with many interesting projects for the public sector primarily being determined on price.”

10. Wilder wilderfilms.co.uk
Md, exec producer Richard Batty
Tel 020 7631 3417
Clients First to a Million for CEOP; 2012 Tesco Conference films for Tesco; Spot Cancer Early for Cancer Research UK.
Wilder has also noticed the absence of the COI which means there’s “still a big gap in the UK market left by the lack of public sector work.” There’s also the ongoing frustration that “creative selection for high profile clients is often still led by the procurement department” rather than on creative ability.